Brighton & Hove manager Chris Hughton and chairman, Tony Bloom were awarded an honorary title from the city this week. The two bosses behind the Seagulls promotion have been granted the city’s top honour at a council ceremony. Bloom and Hughton were awarded the freedom of the city title, in order to praise the work they’ve both done for the football club. Despite the title not holding any practical uses to it, it is still a very rare honour and helps to reinforce a positive relationship between the city and the football club.

Hughton was appointed manager in December 2014, taking over from Dick Knight. Last year the local club missed a chance for promotion, coming in third place. This year however, Hughton led his team to a respectable second place, just missing out on clasping the cup at the last game. But finishing second was enough, earning them automatic promotion and being worth roughly £160m to the team – which could spell success for the entire city.

Due to the club’s promotion, we could expect huge benefits in terms of increased profile and increased number of visitors. So it’s really no wonder the council felt the need to pay tribute to the pair responsible.

Credit @ BBC

After the news of guaranteed promotion, fans celebrated in their thousands with an estimated 60,000 people parading and cheering on the players down by the seafront.